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1. New technologies in support of creativity and innovation

2. Facilitating access to culture through new technologies

Key digital divides remain that should be taken into considering when assessing the creative use of new technologies in Spain: (i) socioeconomic — access to network/internet; (ii) generational — digital-skills gap between youth and older generations (parents/educators).

New technologies in support of creativity and innovation

The digital transformation of traditional cultural industries (publishing, music, film) continues apace in Spain, and public policy increasingly frames digital culture and creative industries as priority sectors. For example:

• Video game sector: The industry report Report on the Development of Spanish Video Games 2024 shows that the Spanish video-games sector is booming, with hundreds of studios and significant growth—public policy now recognises video games as part of the cultural-creative ecosystem.
• Audiovisual Production: The Spain Audiovisual Hub of Europe Plan, part of the Agenda España Digital 2026, seeks to make Spain a leading audiovisual production hub (including digital content, immersive media, videogames) by 2025
• Creative industry festivals for young people, for example the Puwerty Festival (launched 2017) which multidisciplinary young-people focused (12–26 yrs), with workshops on youth identity, debate between young creatives in the industry and live music, and the Ibox (Bandeja de Entrada) call for projects (grant of €500) that promotes artistic creation among young innovators.

These policy frameworks support young people’s creative participation by improving digital-industry infrastructure, encouraging digital/immersive content creation, and opening pathways for young creators into technology-enabled cultural production

Facilitating access to culture through new technologies

The Digital Spain Agenda 2026 (Agenda España Digital 2026) is Spain’s current strategy for digital transformation (updating the earlier 2020 version). It focuses on three dimensions: infrastructure & technology, economy and people, all of which intersect with youth, culture and creative-digital participation.

Within this framework:

• The Spain Audiovisual Hub of Europe Plan includes actions to digitalise, internationalise and attract investment in audiovisual production. The 2021 roadmap estimated €1.6 billion mobilised over 2021-2025.
• The policy also emphasises digital-skills development, particularly for youth, to reduce the digital divide and build creative-digital competences for culture and the creative industries.

Youth-specific initiatives include cross-disciplinary events such as the annual Cabueñes International Youth Meetings (in Gijón) which bring together young people, youth workers and media/ICT professionals to debate the role of social networks, ICTs and culture in youth life.Youth-specific initiatives include the annual for media/ICTs, social networks and the role of culture in youth and youth in culture.

In addition, public-sector digital platforms and apps (regional cultural-agendas, museum apps, youth-culture portals) facilitate youth access to creative-digital culture, lowering barriers of entry and enabling participation, not only consumption.